Q & A – Smokey Apartment
Q. Kindly reply with your views from a feng shui perspective. I have found a house that I like and I’m interested in renting it. The yard and house itself seem to have good energy. My concern is that the present occupant is a heavy cigarette smoker and consequently the house reeks. I have looked at many places and this has everything I am looking for, and one thing I’m not: the odor. I know it would require tons of cleaning and space clearing. I haven’t seen anything else that would suit me and I’ve looked a lot. One advantage is that this is a little house with a sweet yard, and not an apartment in a complex. Your feedback on this subject would be great.
A. One of the primary philosophies of Feng Shui is that everything is always changing. It sounds as though this little house is ready for a change as well – and that change includes you…
Thank goodness that the yard is so sweet, as you may sleeping with the windows open and living outside for the first few weeks while the house purges itself. Take good care of your scents in other ways, by bringing in fresh flowers each week, scented candles each day and potpourri by the wagonload.
Congratulations and welcome home!
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Q & A: Love Birds
Q. I was wondering where to place love birds in our home?
A. Well, of course, the answer we want to hear is to place love birds in the Love and Marriage gua, either of the house , or of an individual room bagua. What an enchanting enhancement for that gua, provided, of course, that the two birds really do love each other, are both in great health, and their cage is spacious and LOVINGLY well kept. However, I can also see some strong reasons for NOT locating them there. The better answer is completely dependent on each home’s unique layout and family energetics.
Here are some of the issues we would address before settling on the location best suited to the love birds:
Where do they truly enhance both the home’s energy and their own? Since any living, moving, talkative pet commands attention, a living room, family room, large kitchen, or other spacious public room would allow for a balance between their liveliness and one’s ability to focus on other activities. The birds would blend in there, among several wonderful ch’i filled activities. They would also be well fed by the more frequent attention they might receive. But do they make it too active in those areas, bordering on chaos? I have been in homes where the giant messy cage and noisy bird dominates any and all conversation or contemplation! (Sometimes a separate “aviary” room close to an outside patio is a wonderful solution for that situation.)
In contrast, our love birds’ placement in a smaller, quieter room would mean that they would become the main focal point, as they would be the most active thing in the smaller Yin rooms. This could be a desirable ch’i boost in those spots, if the birds were visited often enough to feel loved and included in the family’s life, and if they did not distract from the necessary activities of that room. For instance, caged birds in a bedroom might disturb sleep, and the cage would need to be kept spotlessly clean so that odors or seed debris did not soil the smaller space.
We often see children’s smaller caged pets housed in their rooms, and they make wonderful companions for them for awhile, as long as they are well-cared for. Small pets allow the child to create a living microcosm in their own small room, and do truly feed their intellects and hearts, connecting the child to all other species.
So, you can see that no matter where we might place those love birds, there are plusses and minuses to consider in any location. We wouldn’t want to see them placed purely for gua enhancement or 5 element balance (Fire) without regard for their health and well-being, or our own. It might even be best for them if they had more than one placement to enjoy within the home–a bright, fresh-air daytime location and a cozy, night sleeping area, for example. Their delightful power to enhance ch’i springs directly from how well kept and happy they are, so make them an honored part of the family, rather than an object in service to the Bagua. Hope this helps–Happy Spring! Karen Carrasco, WSFS Presenter
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